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[SOLVED] First license plate guitar, sounds horrible. Tips?

I started throwing together a LP build yesterday, and have got this far:

So... I've made a pretty sturdy box (3/4" thick pine) with a plywood base, and have the plate attached with 8 screws on the original mounting points and one at each corner. I haven't added the frets or indeed set up a nut (currently just a bone nut blank). I'm not expecting it to be loud but I'm planning to fit dual piezos in there eventually.

This is my first try at a bolt bridge, which looks cool for this style of guitar but seems to buzz pretty horribly all the way up the neck (but curiously not when played open...) - is there any special preparation that needs to be done to use of of these?

Break angle behind the bridge seems fine, certainly no less than I've successfully used in the past.

Also, I've tried with a wooden/bone bridge as I normally use too, and it seems to have the same problem. It sounds slightly less hideous with a slide. Think it'll sound better once the frets are in?

Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 20, 2014 at 3:10am

Interesting suggestions... especially the buffers under the screws. I feel I've seen plenty of LP guitars without them though. As it stands the neck is pretty much finished now, just waiting for the grain filler to dry, them I'll sand it all down and string it up. I'll let you know how it goes!

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Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on May 20, 2014 at 2:41am

hi rich,just looking at your pic,not a lot to offer,but,seems your bridge may be sort of 1/2 on,1/2 off the raised lettering,which may not be helping,that,s all

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 20, 2014 at 3:07am

Yep, tried it all on the lettering, and all off. Same problem!

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Permalink Reply by 3 String Blues on May 20, 2014 at 7:33am

O, that's the dreaded 88 Wyoming plate....is there anyway you can put on the glorious and awesome sounding 89 plate? that would make it a tone monster!

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 20, 2014 at 7:42am

Damn dude. Why didn't I listen to those 'this carries a terrible curse' warnings?!

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Permalink Reply by Greg Potts on May 20, 2014 at 9:55am

A couple things spring to mind...

1. Older plates are made of steel. Newer ones seem to be stamped from aluminum, and don't make nearly as nice a sound. I can't tell from the pic if that's a newer plate or not.

2. It's quite possible the bridge is rattling against the plate. What I do to prevent this is to drill through the sides of the nuts on the end of the bridge, then tap the holes and use a bolt to attach the bridge to the plate. It helps a LOT with a bright clear sound. On the inside I attach a small metal bowl, which picks up the vibration of the bridge and amplifies it a bit. In between the license plate and the bowl I sandwich a piezo rod pickup, which gives a very clear sound.

3. If the neck runs through the box you won't have room for the bowl I mentioned above, but you also want to make sure you have clearance between the plate and the neck, so as to get the most sound from it.

4. Heavier guage strings put more tension on the parts, and sometimes clear up the sound, though they do take more energy to play.

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 20, 2014 at 6:33pm

Thanks for the reply Greg.

1. Definitely steel. The plate is 1988

2. Do you have any pictures of the fixed bridge/bowl combo? Sounds intriguing

3. The neck runs through but there's about an inch clearance between the plate and neck

4. I'm using nickel wound 48, 32, 22 tuned EBE, so the tension is reasonably high

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Permalink Reply by Richey Kay on May 20, 2014 at 7:38pm

[UPDATE]

OK, so I've got it all pretty much finished now. It sounds a lot better. Here's a pic:

The sound of the plate is actually pretty cool. If very quiet. I think the extra screws for rigidity have helped a lot.

I've got 2 piezos in there now, and it sounds very dark/muddy through my Bugera V5. Might wind a magnetic pickup for it. Sustain is quite good, and notes are ringing fairly true. It's a bit of an art with the bolt bridge as even the slightest change in angle can cause muting/buzzing. I think I'll continue working on this one for some time :)

Pic below to show action/break angle etc:

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Permalink Reply by Wade on May 22, 2014 at 3:40pm

I had success carefully cutting a hole for mag pickup in the plate and then take enamels and paint the pickup to match the plate

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Permalink Reply by Bad Finger (Eric) on May 23, 2014 at 1:54am

Action looks good and break certainly looks OK. I'd suggest maybe trying a bolt with a finer pitch thread if that's the look you want to maintain. I suspect the strings are rattling in the grooves causing some extra noise.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Bennett on May 23, 2014 at 2:06am

Try another style of bridge chicken bone John makes wooden bridges with frei wire across the top..I have done this its good

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Permalink Reply by ChickenboneJohn on May 23, 2014 at 2:14am

Yep..this is one of 'em. I've used them on license plate tops before...and had to scribe-cut the bottom of the bridge to conform to the raised lettering. It's also got "string spacer" slots to prevent the strings from skipping about side to side.